View allAll Photos Tagged get_and
It's as close as you can get and you still get pelted with wet (or frozen) mist.
Weekend in Niagara Falls
Another blue hour view from Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
I will not claim that this is a HDR, since there were ugly ghosts in the sky but I didn't want to waste such a view. So I have got three images from a single raw file in the bracketing (the "middle" one), as similar to the original ones I have been able to get and I have processed them as I usually do with HDRIs. At last I have made some blending and other processing in The Gimp. So this is not a true HDR - anyhow, hopefully it will be a "precious" image of gold and sapphire, good enough to convey to you a bit of the beauty I experienced.
"Singö is nearly as far north as you can get and still be in Stockholm's Archipelago. There is a bridge to Singö from Fogdö and the Sea of Åland opens out to the east. Its proximity to the outer archipelago is reflected around the island in the prevalence of most of the bird species found amongst the skerries of the outer archipelago. Northeast of the main island is Abborren, a small skerry which is a bird sanctuary." www.visitskargarden.se/en/the-archipelago/oar/singo/
Commentary.
Some places capture your heart and mind
but you don’t fully understand why.
Tobermory is one such place.
It doesn’t have world-famous buildings or structures.
It doesn’t have 600 - 2,000-foot skyscrapers.
It doesn’t have a huge population
and entertainment for all ages.
It cannot claim any notable residents
like world-leaders, scientists or artists.
It has few shops, hotels, museums or restaurants.
And yet, set as it is, on a wooded semi-circular harbour,
its cosy, colourful, unpretentious character strikes a convivial chord.
Its cheerful blue, black, red, pink, white and yellow facades,
made popular in the B.B.C. children’s programme, “Balamory,”
create a smile and warm affection.
Its very simplicity and lack of commercialisation is its strength.
It is different in a very agreeable way.
What you see, is what you get,
and somehow, that is more than enough.
"Ebb & Flow" - Porth Nanven, Cornwall
I am quite fond of this shot. I managed this quick 6 second exposure whilst running a workshop at the beach and forgot all about it until my scans came back from being processed. It was actually taken using my Zero2000 pinhole camera and Ektar100 colour film. I like the colour version too, but the strength of the b&w appealed. Pinhole cameras are about as simple as photography can get, and yet have a soft dream like quality all of their own I am always drawn to.
Please get in touch if you would like to learn how to take pictures like this on film or digital camera.
I was determined to get and finally got after numerous trips were made! There doesn't seem to be a lot of trains south of Charlotte, I'm sure a lot must run at night? Last week I went three for three missing all three trains. This time I was three for three and I got all three trains! Life is good! ; ) This was train 153, a nice manifest train. He would stop to allow train 204 to pass before moving on...
This shot was hard to get and required a lot of processing. The dynamic range was to much for the camera , so I decided to not blow out the sky and hope for the best in my workflow.
Testing out a new lens I got, Sigma DC 18-200mm, nothing special about it, just new. I was curious how sharp it could get and I'm not disappointed so far. Pretty pleased with the close focusing here, had to go manual of course. this shot is the JPEG SOOC, no post-processing other than Nikon's in camera technology.
Here's me at Mission Control with my new auto-guiding system on my Star Adventurer camera tracker.
The auto-guider allows me to shoot images that are 3 times longer in exposure time (180 seconds versus 60 seconds) with no loss of images due to imperfections (normally this loss is 50%). This means I can get as many quality images in a single night as it used to take 6 nights to get and they're MUCH better quality images shot at lower ISO. With clear moonless nights happening in this area only about 3 times each month at best, often less, you can do the math and see how difficult it has been for me to acquire decent images without auto-guiding.
My astro-partners-in-crime are close by, Doug Griffith (www.flickr.com/photos/138256409@N08/?) is taking this shot with his phone and Wade Clare (www.flickr.com/photos/145470303@N06) is sitting back in his lawn chair watching the proceedings.
The Luxury of being yourself
We have selected pictures on our website, but can always add more depending on the requests we do get and the current trend in the world of luxury fine art:
We do wedding photography and videography:
We do once in a while have discounted luxury fine art, please do keep checking:
Fine Art Photography Prints & Luxury Wall Art:
We do come up with merchandises over the years, but at the moment we have sold out and will bring them back depending on the demands of our past customers and those we do take on daily across the globe.
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We tend to celebrate light in our pictures. Understanding how light interacts with the camera is paramount to the work we do. The temperature, intensity and source of light can wield different photography effect on the same subject or scene; add ISO, aperture and speed, the camera, the lens type, focal length and filters…the combination is varied ad multi-layered and if you know how to use them all, you will come to appreciate that all lights are useful, even those surrounded by a lot of darkness.
We are guided by three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, our longing to capture in print, that which is beautiful, the constant search for the one picture, and constant barrage of new equipment and style of photography. These passions, like great winds, have blown us across the globe in search of the one and we do understand the one we do look for might be this picture right here for someone else out there.
“A concise poem about our work as stated elow
A place without being
a thought without thinking
creatively, two dimensions
suspended animation
possibly a perfect imitation
of what was then to see.
A frozen memory in synthetic colour
or black and white instead,
fantasy dreams in magazines
become imbedded inside my head.
Artistic views
surrealistic hues,
a photographer’s instinctive eye:
for he does as he pleases
up to that point he releases,
then develops a visual high.
- M R Abrahams
Some of the gear we use at William Stone Fine Art are listed here:
Some of our latest work & more!
Embedded galleries within a gallery on various aspects of Photography:
There are other aspects closely related to photography that we do embark on:
All prints though us is put through a rigorous set of quality control standards long before we ever ship it to your front door. We only create gallery-quality images, and you'll receive your print in perfect condition with a lifetime guarantee.
All images on Flickr have been specifically published in a lower grade quality to amber our copyright being infringed. We have 4096x pixel full sized quality on all our photos and any of them could be ordered in high grade museum quality grade and a discount applied if the voucher WS-100 is used. Please contact us:
We do plan future trips and do catalogue our past ones, if you believe there is a beautiful place we have missed, and we are sure there must be many, please do let us know and we will investigate.
In our galleries you will find some amazing fine art photography for sale as limited edition and open edition, gallery quality prints. Only the finest materials and archival methods are used to produce these stunning photographic works of art.
We want to thank you for your interest in our work and thanks for visiting our work on Flickr, we do appreciate you and the contributions you make in furthering our interest in photography and on social media in general, we are mostly out in the field or at an event making people feel luxurious about themselves.
WS-133-531203314-162807240-4527979-1352022165322
►►► Explore the world of HDR with me at farbspiel-photo.com - View. Learn. Connect.
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About | HDR Cookbook | Before-and-After | Making-of | Pics to play with
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(Hit 'f' to fave this image)
Watch the Before-and-After Comparison to see where this photo comes from!
The story of this photo:
In the last two weeks, I was a bit slow in following your streams and commenting. As a matter of fact, I did not have a lot of time to do any photo editing and uploading. I am trying to be more active now. I hope you are all doing great, and that you had a nice and relaxing Easter break. Did you get to do some shooting? I hope so! Well I actually did. I was visiting some places with my family. One was the Abbey and Palace at Bebenhausen. I got quite a few nice shots there, and this is the first upload.
Bebenhausen Palace was originally built in the 12th century as a Cistercian monastery. Later, in the 16th century it was partially re-built and used as a hunting palace by the kings of Württemberg. Even until the mid 20th century it was still used as a parliament building by the government. Unlike many palaces of that time, its style is not very pompous but more oriented towards the upper-class living standards at that time with mainly wooden interiors.
Enjoy!
Take a look at my "HDR Cookbook"! It contains some more information on my techniques.
How it was shot:
> Handheld [details]
> Three exposures (0, -2, +2 EV) autobracketed and merged to get and HDR
> Camera: Nikon D7000
> Lens: Sigma 10-20mm F3,5 EX DC HSM
> Details can be found here
How it was tonemapped:
> Preparation: developed the raw files with ACR mainly in order to reduce the CA [details]
> Created two additional exposures in ACR (+4EV and -4EV) to preserve highlights and shadows [details]
> Resulting TIF images were then used as input to Photomatix
> Tone-mapping: Photomatix Pro 4.0 (Detail Enhancer)
How it was post-processed:
> Post-processing was done in Photoshop
> Topaz Adjust on the entire image to get back the colors and the details [details]
> Topaz Denoise on the entire image (more aggressively in the shadow areas) [details]
> Topaz Infocus on the entire image for sharpening
> Saturation layer on the blue ceiling and walls (master)
> Saturation layer on the wooden parts (reds, yellows)
> Global saturation layer (master)
> Global levels layer (more contrast, brightness)
> Vignette effect using a masked fill layer [details]
> Sharpening using the high-pass filter [details]
> Watermarking
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Learn these techniques at farbspiel-photo.com - View. Learn. Connect.
- Thanks for viewing!
Lol. Good first vet visit. He was a little gentleman. He is a healthy weight of eleven pounds but dehydrated. No fleas. He had blood tests for all the bad things cats can get and all negative. See comment section.
Hi everyone and Happy Weekend. Actually took this today while my truck was having new breaks installed so figured i would venture behind the mechanics shop while waiting which is a nice wooded area that keeps going on for an eternity. Used my Samsung galaxy S3 cell phone camera and simply amazing how good of a quick shot you can get and the video quality is excellent as well. So instead of wasting time sitting there figured this was the next best thing to do ohh and to boot came back with a big smile on my face till i got the bill for the breaks!!!!,LOL
Still working crazy hours and this is my first day back after working 28 hours straight so this is for the admins and moderators who picked up the slack and took care of the groups i admin and moderate. You are all a great bunch and can't thank you enough for all your help!
Stay well,
tony
Camera: Mamiya M645
Lens: Mamiya 80mm f2.8
Film: Lomography 100 (fresh)
Developer: Unicolor C-41 nearing the end of its life. I've gotten about 48 rolls out of this single 1-liter kit (40 more than the box says I should get) and I'm going to use it until the results are unacceptable. They are still acceptable to my eye.
Scanner: Epson V600
Photoshop: Curves, Healing Brush (spotting)
Generally not a big fan of these kinds of shots, but sometimes you get what you get. And it is the king of birds after all
Meagher County, MT.
My latest two Raynas go 'head to head'. Both dolls have been widely available and quite easy to get and I think both are really beautiful - I could never choose between them!
Fabulous Rayna on the left is Cream skin tone
Eye Candy Rayna on the right is Japan skin tone
Autumn wasn't that long ago, but it felt so brief here, and seems like a distant memory. I pretty much had one trip to get all the fall color I could get, and this is the last of those shots. My last dam shot. :) Hopefully this Autumn will be a great one.
Mid-August is a great time for photographing waders [shorebirds]. Not only are there still some adults in summer plumages but the fresh-clad juveniles, which tend to be less wary, are also present. Just find the patch of seaweed they are feeding on and sit down a couple of hours before high tide. Get as low as possible, ignore all the insect bites you are getting and allow the water to push the birds close to you.
Using this strategy in Nova Scotia I once ended up with a small group of Least Sandpipers roosting on my out-stretched legs!
Here is a superb adult Turnstone still in its chestnut summer finery. Soon all our turnstones will be in their dark, drab winter dress
Another set of photos from a recent visit to Forest How for the squirrels. I'll have a blog post out about this trip in the next few days.
This was a shot I really wanted get, and forms part of my on-going series of wildlife portraits on black.
"Spraying Flames - 1"
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In July of 2011, while photographing and freezing fireworks no longer felt like a challenge, and I began to realize that a lot of the pictures had seemed to look way too similar to each other. To solve this problem, I wanted to get a little experimental and spice things up a bit with some creativity. I developed a few deeply thought out techniques to be executed within the camera at the time of the photo being taken, to that make the fireworks look like anything except for what we are used to perceiving as an actual "firework".
This experimentation and creative technique, had proven fireworks to be my favorite things to photograph, as well as leading me to win 3rd place in the Popular Photography Magazine's "Your Best Shot Contest", with this photo:
"Abstract Explosion"
www.flickr.com/photos/nickbenben/5939053732
(Which can be found in the April Issue of Popular Photography Magazine)
When the celebrations began in 2012 for the anniversary of America's independence, I set out with a mission to photograph as many firework displays as I possibly had the time and energy for. My goal was to refine and improve my techniques and experiment further, to get and idea of what other immense and colorful designs I would be able to create - with no expectations.
***Instead of uploading a whole batch all at once, I will be revealing a new abstract firework photograph DAILY, for the next 30 days - to keep things more interesting***
Thank you so much for taking your time to read what I wrote, and for spending the time to look at my work.
Please, don't be afraid to share your thoughts- I'd love to know what you think.
I hope you enjoy some of my most recent results!
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© Nick Benson, All rights reserved. Use of this image without permission is illegal.
If you like my work and you would like to see more, please feel free to visit my website, nickbensonphoto.com.
One of the best ways you can stay updated with my current and most recent work, is by liking my fan page on Facebook!
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So, the main reason for my road trip back along the Dorset coast was to see Durdle Door. I have never been the before and really wanted to get there with my camera. I must admit to getting rather suck though, it was stunning but I was struggling to find a picture that I had not seen before.
So I decided to leave it and take the previous two shots that I have already posted just so that I had some shots in the bag and to get the juices flowing. Coming back to this scene I set my camera up with the Lees 10 Stop and went for a more classic composition running along the cliff top to Durdle Door.
The conditions were not great on the day, but I still managed to come away with a few shots that I like and went I go back there I will have a better idea of what pictures to get and hopefully better light.
"Whatever Lola Wants"
What ever Lola wants
Lola gets
And little man little Lola wants you
Make up your mind to have (your mind to have)
No regrets (no regrets)
Recline yourself resign yourself you're through
I always get - what I aim for
And your heart and soul is what I came for
What ever Lola wants (Lola wants)
Lola gets (Lola gets)
Take off your coat
Don't you know you can't win (can't win you'll never never win)
You're no exception to the rule
I'm irresistible you fool
Give in (give in you'll never win)
I always get - what I aim for
And your heart and soul is what I came for
What ever Lola wants (Lola wants)
Lola gets (Lola gets)
Take off your coat
Don't you know you can't win (can't win you'll never never win)
You're no exception to the rule
I'm irresistible you fool
Give in (give in you'll never win)
Another flower from Ma's garden the humble pansy, they grow so well in Inverness. I like the sheer varieties you get, and they are tough they survive very well outside.
I'm trying to relive my youth. Lol!! Too bad I don't have a time machine huh? Well, I did my best.
I know I've been really scarce around here, and everywhere else, but it seems physically, new things keep cropping up the older I get and I'm really not that ancient. Things deteriorating before they should, if you get my drift. Pretty disappointing, although my last robotic surgery seemed to be good. Some pain off and on but not severe like before. I'm going in for kidney surgery in a couple of weeks and then another surgery a couple weeks later. I've developed a macular hole in my eye and it's extremely hard to put eye makeup on. So the vision is my right eye is compromised a lot. Oh well. That's life I guess.
Anyway I was able to put a few more photos together a few days ago after all these months. Hope you like this first one. It was kind of hard to adjust this photo. It came out rather dark and with my eyes the way they are it was difficult to adjust the brightness and darkness. I did my best. 😊
Everyone, be Well and Safe. 🌹🙏
Hugs and Kisses,
Sherilyn 💋
NOTICE: This photo is copyrighted 2023 by Sherilyn Sands with all rights reserved. No downloading, screen capture or distribution of this photo without my permission. Thanks!
A night crossing
On a one lane bridge
Requires all the help
You can get and just maybe
A night filled with lights..........
“My mother said it was simple to keep a man;
you must be a maid in the living room,
a cook in the kitchen
and a whore in the bedroom.”
~attributed to Jerry Hall
Most men say they want their partners to act like whores in the bedroom. So tell me how do whores act in the bedroom and how is it different to how women who aren't whores act?
I have never understood this and think it's just an excuse start treating your partner with the same respect these whores get and you will see a difference. I am so tired of the excuses from both men and women about how they did it because 'they weren't being treated right' or whatever.
The excuses can go on forever although they are denied until actually confronted then the partner gets blamed for it as if they were actually there and forced the infidelity.
If people were just honest and treated each other with respect there would be no need for all the excuses and lies. If you cheat it's because you don't love the person you are with.....?
IMG_9948
22 Mar 13
Alot of people are still very much afraid to live beyond their fenced-off properties. They have these irrational fears based on grotesquely proportioned myths that keep them from really knowing their environment, getting to touch with what's real and what's really going on. Obviously I know no body wants crime to happen to them and so people do take the best of precautions, however letting that influence the whole flow of your life (and ultimately the destination) only enables those who want to control your flow. By engaging with your environment on all levels, not just the designated ones or the supposed 'safe-zones', you begin to get a true understanding for it and how it works and are then able to change it.
So as you can see, it's quite a big one this, takes up the whole bridge. Sorry about the funky joiner (my photoshop skills aren't too hot). Took about 25-30 hours collectively over a couple of days. Sorry that it took alittle longer than expected, I get carried away with these things. I don't mind though, because art is about the only thing where the juice is truly worth the squeeze. The more you squeeze, the more juice you get, and I'm damn thirsty! Shouts going out to OWN and 012 on this one!
Just another frame I like of this relatively uncommon Saturday extra run of a Providence and Worcester Railroad unit ethanol train destined for the Shell tank farm at the Port of Providence. This is one of the coolest shots in Rhode Island, and while easily accessible is challenging to get and I've only managed it a few other times. Leading the train are a B40-8, B40-8W, B39-8E GE trio the first two of which are wearing their original independent P&W colors with the third dressed in the Genesee and Wyoming corporate scheme.
They are pulling down what I believe used to be called track 6 but is now just a long yard track tailing out the south (west) end of Cranston Yard. Counting from right to left from the train are Amtrak New Haven Line Mains 2, 1, and 3 with the turnout for Wellington Siding out of sight right behind me. All of those tracks are controlled and maintained by Amtrak though I'm not sure of the ownership of the track the train is on, though I believe it is maintained by the PW.
The wide catenary poles spanning all the tracks make photographic opportunities wonderful in the afternoon here for southbound trains. The problem, however, is that the only freight that normally comes to Cranston in daylight is Valley Falls local PR-3, and they never have a big enough train to pull this far west. The only time they would be seen here is if they were headed to the old Warwick Railway which is where this track continues (it no longer ties back into the main on the west end) curling off about 3/10ths of a mile behind me to cross Elmwood Ave and reach Safety Kleen. That is the only customer left on what is now known as the Warwick Industrial but was once and independent shortline under a mile in length that interchanged here in Auburn (the neighborhood this section of town is known as) with the New Haven, Penn Central, and Conrail until being purchased by the PW around 1981.
Thanks to the length of these ethanol trains they have to pull all the way down to this point in order to clear CRANSTON interlocking where they crossed Amtrak's Northeast Corridor to reach the yard which is on the opposite side from the freight track (Main 3). They have pulled just a few car lengths west of MP 180 and have paused to make a cut back at the east end of the yard before starting their reverse move up the Harbor Junction Running track between I95 and the Zoo to begin the work of spotting up the first half of their train.
Cranston, Rhode Island
Saturday April 20, 2024
►►► Explore the world of HDR with me at farbspiel-photo.com - View. Learn. Connect.
______________________________________________________________________
About | HDR Cookbook | Before-and-After | Making-of | Pics to play with
______________________________________________________________________
(Hit 'f' to fave this image)
Watch the Before-and-After Comparison to see where this photo comes from!
The story of this photo:
This is another interior shot from the AIDAbella cruise ship - the casino! Did you know that they are only allowed to open the casino once the ship has reached international waters? Anyway, I did not gamble on that trip! In fact, my first and only gambling experience was in Las Vegas where I played some poker. After a few hands I lost big time. I had a full house and my opponent had four sixes. Can you believe that??? Normally this only happens in Hollywood movies. This time it happened to me. To make things worse, that guy won an additional 100 Dollars for making the best hand in that hour with his quad sixes. Duhhh...
Maybe you noticed that I did a bit of redesign on my frame which also carries over into the photo. I hope you like it. I borrowed the original idea for that kind of watermarking from Ryan Eng. I think it's a brilliant idea to integrate the watermark into the photo. Ryan, if you happen to read this, I hope this is ok with you.
Enjoy!
Take a look at my "HDR Cookbook"! It contains some more information on my techniques.
How it was shot:
> Taken handheld [details]
> Three exposures (0, -2, +2 ev) autobracketed and merged to get and HDR
> Camera: Nikon D90
> Lens: Sigma 10-20mm F3,5 EX DC HSM
> Details can be found here
How it was tonemapped:
> Preparation: Developed the RAW files in ACR mainly for CA correction [details]
> HDR creation using Photoshop (better alignment of source photos)
> Tonemapping using Photomatix version 3.1 (Detail Enhancer)
> Saved as 16bit TIF
How it was post-processed:
> Post-processing was done in Photoshop
> Topaz Adjust on the entire image to get back the colors and the details [details]
> Topaz Denoise (more aggressively on the ceiling) [details]
> Saturation layer on the floor (yellows, reds)
> Levels layer on the floor (more contrast)
> Saturation layer on the chairs (master, yellows)
> Saturation layer on the ceiling (master)
> Saturation layer on the tables (slight desaturation)
> Levels layer on the tables (slight darkening)
> Vignette effect on the lower half of the photo using a masked fill layer [details]
> Sharpening using the high-pass filter [details]
______________________________________________________________________
Learn these techniques at farbspiel-photo.com - View. Learn. Connect.
- Thanks for viewing!
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Today however we are not in Lettice’s flat, and whilst we have not travelled that far physically across London, the tough streets, laneways and blind alleys of Poplar in London’s East End is a world away from Lettice’s rarefied and privileged world. On Tuesday Mrs. Boothby, Lettice’s charwoman*, discovered that Edith, Lettice’s maid, didn’t have a sewing machine when the Cockney cleaner found the young maid cutting out the pieces for a new frock. Mrs. Boothby made overtures towards Edith, inviting her to her home in Poplar in London’s East End with an air of mystery, saying she might be able to help her with her predicament of a sewing machine.
Friends of Lettice, newlyweds Margot and Dickie Channon, have been gifted a Recency country “cottage residence” called ‘Chi an Treth’ (Cornish for ‘beach house’) in Penzance as a wedding gift by the groom’s father, the Marquess of Taunton. Margot in her desire to turn ‘Chi an Treth’ from a dark Regency house to a more modern country house flooded with light, has commissioned Lettice to help redecorate some of the rooms in a lighter and more modern style, befitting a modern couple like the Channons. Lettice has decamped to Penzance for a week where she is overseeing the painting and papering of ‘Chi an Treth’s’ drawing room, dining room and main reception room, before fitting it out with a lorryload of new and repurposed furnishings, artwork and objets d’arte that she has had sent down weeks prior to her arrival. In her mistress’ absence, Edith has more free time on her hands, and so she was able to agree to Mrs. Boothby’s mysterious invitation. Even though she is happy with her current arrangement to take any items she wants to sew home to her parent’s house in Harlesden, where she can use her mother’s Singer** sewing machine on her days off. The opportunity of gaining access to a sewing machine of her own is too good for Edith to refuse.
Now the two women walk through the narrow streets of Poplar, passing along walkways, some concrete, some made of wooden planks and some just dirt, between tenements of two and three stories high. The streets they traverse are dim with the weakening afternoon light from the autumn sky blocked out by the overhanging upper floors of the buildings and the strings of laundry hanging limply along lines between them. Although Edith is not unfamiliar with the part of Whitechapel around Petticoat Lane*** where she shops for second hand clothes to alter and for haberdashery to do them, she still feels nervous in the unfamiliar maze of streets that Mrs. Boothby is guiding her down, and she sticks closely next to or directly behind the old Cockney char. The air is filled with a mixture of strong odours: paraffin oil, boiled cabbage and fried food intermixed with the pervasive stench of damp and unwashed bodies and clothes. Self-consciously, Edith pulls her three quarter length coat more tightly around her in an effort to protect herself from the stench.
“Below!” comes a Cockney female voice from above as a sash window groans in protest as it is opened.
“Ere! Look out, Edith dearie!” Mrs. Boothby exclaims, grabbing Edith by the arm and roughly pulling the maid out of the way, thrusting her behind her.
A moment later the air is filled with the harsh sound of slops splattering against the concrete path, and a pool of dirty liquid stains the concrete a dark muddy brown as it slowly dribbles down into a shallow drain that runs down the middle of the laneway.
“Wouldn’t want your nice clothes to get spoilt nah, would we dearie.” Mrs. Boothby says as she turns and smiles into Edith’s startled face.
“Was that?” Edith begins but doesn’t finish her question as she peers at the puddle draining away, leaving lumps on the path.
“I shouldn’t look too closely if I were you, dearie.” Mrs. Boothby says kindly in a matter-of-fact way. “If you ‘ave to ask, you’re better off not knowin’. That’s my opinion, anyway. Come on. Not much further nah.”
“You… you will take me home, won’t you Mrs. Boothby?” Edith asks a little nervously as they continue their progress down the lane which she notices is getting narrower and darker as they go.
“Course I will, dearie! You can rely on old Ida Boothby. I know these streets like the back of my ‘and. Youse perfectly safe wiv me.”
The laneway ends suddenly, and Edith is blinded for a moment by bright sunlight as they step out into a rookery**** with two storey Victorian tenements of grey stone and red brick either side of a concrete courtyard with a narrow drain running down its centre. The original builders or owners of the tenements obviously have meant for the sad buildings to be at least a little homely, with shutters painted a Brunswick green hanging to either side of the ground floor windows. Looking up, Edith notices several window boxes of brightly coloured geraniums and other flowers suspended from some of the upper floor windowsills. Women of different ages walk in and out of the open front doors, or sit in them on stools doing mending, knitting or peeling potatoes, all chatting to one another, whilst children skip and play on the concrete of the courtyard.
“Welcome to Merrybrook Place,” Mrs. Boothby says with a hint of pride in her voice. “My ‘ome. Though Lawd knows why they called it that. I ain’t never seen no brook, merry or otherwise, runnin’ dahn ‘ere, unless it’s the slops from the privvies dahn the end.” She points to the end of the rookery where, overlooked by some older tenements of brick and wooden shingling most likely from the early Nineteenth Century, a couple of ramshackle privies stand. “So just watch your step, Edith dearie. We don’t want you steppin’ your nice shoes in nuffink nasty.” She gives her a warm smile. “Come on.”
As they start walking up the rookery, one woman wrapped in a paisley shawl stands in her doorway staring at Edith with undisguised curiosity and perhaps a little jealousy as she casts her critical gaze over her simple, yet smart, black coat and dyed straw hat decorated with silk flowers and feathers.
“Wanna paint a picture Mrs. Friedmann?” Mrs. Boothby calls out hotly to her, challenging her open stare with a defensive one of her own. “Might last you longer, your royal ‘ighness!” She makes a mock over exaggerated curtsey towards her, hitching up the hem of her workday skirts.
The woman tilts her head up slightly, sniffs in disgust and looks down her nose with spite at both Edith and the Cockney charwoman before muttering something in a language Edith doesn’t need to speak to understand. Turning on her heel, the woman slams her door sharply behind her, the noise echoing off the hard surfaces of the court.
“Who was that, Mrs. Boothby?” Edith asks nervously.
“Lawd love you dearie,” chortles Mrs. Boothby, the action resulting on one of her fruity hacking coughs that seem remarkably loud from such a diminutive figure. “That’s that nasty local Yid***** matchmaker what I told you ‘bout.” Raising her voice she continues, speaking loudly at the closed door. “Golda Friedmann goes around wiv ‘er nose in the air wrapped up in that fancy paisley shawl actin’ like she was the Queen of Russia ‘erself. But she ain’t! She’s no better than the rest of us.”
As Mrs. Boothby trudges on up the rookery another doorway opens and an old woman with a figure that shows many years of childbirth steps out, dressed in a black skirt and an old fashioned but pretty floral print Edwardian high necked blouse. “Afternoon Ida.”
“Oh! Afternoon Lil!” Mrs. Boothby replies. “Oh Lil! I got somefink in ‘ere for you.” She opens up her capacious blue beaded bag and fossicks around making the beads rattle before withdrawing a couple of thin pieces of soap, one bar a bright buttercup yellow, a second pink and the last white. “’Ere. For the kiddies.”
“Oh fanks ever so, Ida!” the other woman replies, gratefully accepting the pieces of soap in her careworn hands.
“Edith,” Mrs. Boothby calls. “This ‘ere is my neighbour, Mrs. Conway.” A couple of cheeky little faces with sallow cheeks, but bright eyes, poke out from behind Mrs. Conway’s skirts and smile up shyly at Edith with curiosity. “Hullo kiddies.” Mrs. Boothby says to them. “Nah sweeties from me today. Sorry. Mrs. Conway, this ‘ere is Miss Watsford, what works for one of my ladies up in Mayfair.”
“Oh ‘ow do you do?” Mrs. Conway says, wiping her hands down her skirts before reaching out a hand to Edith.
“How do you do, Mrs. Conway.” Edith replies with a gentle smile, taking her hand, and feeling her rough flesh rub against her own as the old woman’s bony fingers entwine hers.
“Well, must be getting on, Lil,” Mrs. Boothby says. “Ta-ta.”
“Ta-ra, Ida. Ta-ra Miss Watsford.” Mrs. Conway replies before turning back and shooing the children inside good naturedly.
“Goodbye Mrs, Conway. It was nice to meet you.” Edith says.
At the next door, one painted Brunswick green like the shutters, Mrs. Boothby stops and takes out a large string of keys from her bag and promptly finds the one for her own front door. As the key engages with the lock the door groans in protest as it slowly opens. The old woman says, “Just stand ‘ere in the doorway, Edith dearie, while I’ll open the curtains.”
She disappears into the gloom, which vanishes a moment later as with a flourish, she flings back some heavy red velvet curtains, flooding the room with light from the front window. It takes a moment for Edith’s eyes to adjust as the old Cockney woman stands for a moment in the pool of light, so brilliant after the gloom, surrounded by a floating army of illuminated dust motes tumbling over one another in the air. As her eyes adjust, Edith discerns things within the tenement front room: a kitchen table not too unlike her own at Cavendish Mews, a couple of sturdy ladderback chairs, an old fashioned black leaded stove and a sink in the corner.
“Close the door behind you and come on in, dearie. The ‘ouse is still warmish from this mornin’.” Mrs. Boothby says kindly as she tosses her beaded handbag carelessly onto the table where it lands with a thud and the jangle of beads. “Take a seat and I’ll get the range goin’ and pop the kettle on for a nice cup of Rosie-Lee******! I dunno ‘bout you, but I’m parched.”
“Yes, thank you, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith replies as she closes the door.
Shutting out the unpleasant mixture of odours outside with the closing of the door, Edith is comforted by the smells of carbolic soap and lavender. Looking about she notices a couple of little muslin bags hanging from the curtains.
“Good. Nah, give me your ‘at ‘n coat and I’ll ‘ang them up.” Mrs. Boothby says. Noticing Edith’s gaze upon the pouches she explains. “Lavender to ‘elp keep the moths and the smells from the privy at bay.”
“Oh.” Edith replies laconically.
As Mrs. Boothby hangs up Edith’s coat and hat as well as her own on a hook behind the door and then bustles about stoking up the embers of the fire left in the stove, Edith says, “Mrs. Conway seems like a nice person to have as your neighbour, Mrs. Boothby.”
“She’s a good un, that one. She takes care of all the little kiddies round ‘n ‘bout while their parents is at work.” Mrs. Boothby throws some coal into the stove and shoves it with a poker. “She’s got an ‘eart of gold she does. I owe ‘er a lot. She does ‘er best by them kiddies. Gives ‘em a meal made outta what she can, which for some might be the only meal they get. And she gives ‘em a good bath too when she can. That’s why I give ‘er the left over soap ends from the ‘ouses I go to.”
“Oh I’m sorry Mrs. Boothby. I always take Miss Lettice’s soap ends to Mum to grate up and make soap flakes from for washing.”
“Ahh, don’t worry dearie. I gets plenty from some of the other ‘ouses I go to. Some of ‘em even throws out bars of soap what’s been barely used cos they get cracked and they don’t like the look of ‘em no more. Some of them ladies up the West End don’t know just ‘ow lucky they is to ‘ave as many bars of soap as they like. Nah, you keep takin’ Miss Lettice’s ends to your mum. So long as they’s bein’ used, I’m ‘appy. Waste not, want not, I always say.”
With nothing to do whilst the older woman goes about filling the large kettle with water from the sink in the corner of the room, Edith has more time to look at her surroundings. The floor is made of wooden boards whilst the walls are covered in a rather dark green wallpaper featuring old fashioned Art Nouveau patterns. The house must one have had owners or tenants with grander pretentions than Mrs. Boothby for the stove is jutting out of a much larger fireplace surround, which although chipped and badly discoloured from years of coal dust, cooking and cigarette smoke, is marble. However, it is the profusion of ornaments around the small room that catches the young girl’s eye. Along the mantle of the original fireplace stand a piece of Staffordshire, a prettily painted cow creamer, a jug in the shape of a duck coming out of an egg and a teapot in the shape of Queen Victoria. Turning around behind her to where Mrs. Boothby gathers a pretty blue and white china teapot, some cups, saucers and a sugar bowl, she sees a large dresser that is cluttered with more decorative plates, teapots, jugs, tins and a cheese dish in the shape of a cottage.
“Not what you was expectin’ I’ll warrant.” Mrs, Boothby remarks with a knowing chuckle that causes her to emit yet another of her throaty coughs.
“Oh no Mrs. Boothby!” Edith replies, blushing with shame at being caught out staring about her so shamelessly. “I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I mean… I had no expectations.”
“Well, it’s nuffink special, but this is my ‘aven of calm and cleanliness away from the dirty world out there.” She points through the window where, when Edith turns her head, she can see several scrawny children playing marbles on the concrete of the courtyard. “And it’s ‘ome to me.”
“Oh yes, it’s lovely and clean and cheerful, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith assures her hostess. “No, I was just admiring all your pretty crockery. It reminds me of my Mum’s kitchen, actually. She is always collecting pretty china and pottery.”
“Well, who was it what told you to go dahn to the Caledonian Markets******* to buy a gift for your mum?” the old woman says with a cheeky wink. “Me that who!” She pokes her chest proudly, before coughing heavily again.
“So did you get all these from the Caledonian Markets then, Mrs. Boothby?” Edith asks, looking around again.
“Well, most, but not all. I got meself an art gallery from the Caledonian Markets, for when I washes the dishes.” She points to two cheap prints of classic paintings in equally cheap wooden frames hanging on the walls above the little sink. “Better than starin’ at a blank wall, even if it’s covered in wallpaper. Course, some a them ladies up the West End is awfully wasteful wiv much more than soap, and just like them soap ends, I get my share. Somethin’ a bit old fashioned or got a tiny chip in it and they’s throwin’ it out like it was a piece of rubbish, so I offer ta take it. Take that nice cow up there,” She points to the cow creamer on the mantle. “The lid got lost somewhere, so the lady from Belgravia what owned it told ‘er maid to throw it out, so I said I’d take it instead. That,” She points to the Staffordshire statue. “Was one of a pair, what the uvver ‘alf got broken, so it was being chucked, so I took it. I don’t care if it don’t ‘ave the uvver ‘alf. I like it as it is. It’s pretty. The Queen Victoria teapot was getting’ chucked out just ‘cos the old Queen died, and King Bertie was takin’ ‘er place. Well, I wasn’t ‘avin’ none of that. Poor old Queen! I said I’d ‘ave it if no-one else wanted it. And this teapot,” She withdraws the pretty blue and white china teapot from atop the stove. “This was just bein’ thrown out ‘cos it’s old and they’s no bits of the set left but this. But there ain’t nuffink wrong wiv it, and it must be at least a ‘undred years old!”
Mrs. Boothby pulls out a gilt edged blue and white cake plate which she puts on the table along with the tea cups, sugar bowl and milk jug. She then goes to the dresser and pulls down a pretty tin decorated with Art Nouveau ladies from which she takes several pieces of shortbread, which she places on the cake plate.
“That’s very lovely, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith points to a teapot in the shape of a rabbit sitting in a watering can. “It looks rather like Peter Rabbit.”
“Ahh… my Ken loves that too.” Edith’s ears prick at the mention of someone named Ken, but she doesn’t have time to ask who he is before Mrs. Boothby continues, “That bunny rabbit teapot is one of the few pieces I got what ‘as a sad story what goes wiv it. Poor lady what I cleaned for up in St. James’, it were ‘er baby’s, from the nursery, you know?” Edith nods in understanding. “Well, ‘e died. ‘E was a weak little mite ‘e were, ever since ‘e was born, and my poor lady was so upset when ‘e died that she got rid of everyfink in the nursery. She didn’t want nuffink to remind her of that little baby. So, I brought it ‘ome wiv me.” She sighs. “Well, the kettle’s boiled now, so ‘ow about a cup of Rosie-Lee, dearie?”
A short while later, Edith and Mrs. Boothby are seated around Mrs. Boothby’s kitchen table with the elegant Regency teapot, some blue and white china cups and the plate of shortbreads before them.
“Oh I tell you Edith dearie, I’m dying for a fag!” Mrs Boothby says. She starts fossicking through her capacious beaded bag before withdrawing her cigarette papers, Swan Vestas and tin of Player’s Navy Cut. Rolling herself a cigarette she lights it with a satisfied sigh and one more of her fruity coughs, dropping the match into a black ashtray that sits on the table full of cigarette butts. Mrs. Boothby settles back happily in her ladderback chair with her cigarette in one hand and reaches out, taking up a shortbread biscuit with the other. Blowing out a plume of blue smoke that tumbles through the air around them, the old woman continues. “Nah, about this sewin’ machine. My Ken’ll be ‘ome soon, I ‘ope. ‘E’s a bit late today.”
“Mrs. Boothby, who is Ken?” Edith asks with a questioning look on her face.
Just as Mrs. Boothby is about to answer her, she gasps as she hears a rather loud and jolly whistle.
“Well, speak of the devil, ‘ere ‘e comes nah!”
The front door of the tenement flies open and the space is instantly filled by the bulk of a big man in a flat cap with a large parcel wrapped in newspaper tied with twine under his right arm.
*A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.
**The Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing machines, it was renamed Singer Manufacturing Company in 1865, then the Singer Company in 1963. In 1867, the Singer Company decided that the demand for their sewing machines in the United Kingdom was sufficiently high to open a local factory in Glasgow on John Street. The Vice President of Singer, George Ross McKenzie selected Glasgow because of its iron making industries, cheap labour, and shipping capabilities. Demand for sewing machines outstripped production at the new plant and by 1873, a new larger factory was completed on James Street, Bridgeton. By that point, Singer employed over two thousand people in Scotland, but they still could not produce enough machines. In 1882 the company purchased forty-six acres of farmland in Clydebank and built an even bigger factory. With nearly a million square feet of space and almost seven thousand employees, it was possible to produce on average 13,000 machines a week, making it the largest sewing machine factory in the world. The Clydebank factory was so productive that in 1905, the U.S. Singer Company set up and registered the Singer Manufacturing Company Ltd. in the United Kingdom.
***Petticoat Lane Market is a fashion and clothing market in Spitalfields, London. It consists of two adjacent street markets. Wentworth Street Market and Middlesex Street Market. Originally populated by Huguenots fleeing persecution in France, Spitalfields became a center for weaving, embroidery and dying. From 1882, a wave of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in eastern Europe settled in the area and Spitalfields then became the true heart of the clothing manufacturing district of London. 'The Lane' was always renowned for the 'patter' and showmanship of the market traders. It was also known for being a haven for the unsavoury characters of London’s underworld and was rife with prostitutes during the late Victorian era. Unpopular with the authorities, as it was largely unregulated and in some sense illegal, as recently as the 1930s, police cars and fire engines were driven down ‘The Lane’, with alarm bells ringing, to disrupt the market.
****A rookery is a dense collection of housing, especially in a slum area. The rookeries created in Victorian times in London’s East End were notorious for their cheapness, filth and for being overcrowded.
*****The word Yid is a Jewish ethnonym of Yiddish origin. It is used as an autonym within the Ashkenazi Jewish community, and also used as slang. When pronounced in such a way that it rhymes with did by non-Jews, it is commonly intended as a pejorative term. It is used as a derogatory epithet, and as an alternative to, the English word 'Jew'. It is uncertain when the word began to be used in a pejorative sense by non-Jews, but some believe it started in the late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century when there was a large population of Jews and Yiddish speakers concentrated in East London, gaining popularity in the 1930s when Oswald Mosley developed a strong following in the East End of London.
******Rosie-Lee is Cockney slang for tea, and it is one of the most well-known of all Cockney rhyming slang.
*******The original Caledonian Market, renown for antiques, buried treasure and junk, was situated in in a wide cobblestoned area just off the Caledonian Road in Islington in 1921 when this story is set. Opened in 1855 by Prince Albert, and originally called the Metropolitan Meat Markets, it was supplementary to the Smithfield Meat Market. Arranged in a rectangle, the market was dominated by a forty six metre central clock tower. By the early Twentieth Century, with the diminishing trade in live animals, a bric-a-brac market developed and flourished there until after the Second World War when it moved to Bermondsey, south of the Thames, where it flourishes today. The Islington site was developed in 1967 into the Market Estate and an open green space called Caledonian Park. All that remains of the original Caledonian Markets is the wonderful Victorian clock tower.
I would just like to point out that I wrote this story some weeks ago, long before The Queen became ill and well before her passing. However it seems apt that this story of all, which I planned weeks ago to upload today as part of the Chetwyn Mews narrative, mentions the passing of The Queen (albeit Queen Victoria). I wish to dedicate this image and chapter to our own Queen of past and glorious times Queen Elizabeth II (1926 – 2022). Long did she reign over us, happy and glorious. God bless The Queen.
This cluttered, yet cheerful domestic scene is not all it seems to be at first glance, for it is made up of part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection. Some pieces come from my own childhood. Other items I acquired as an adult through specialist online dealers and artists who specialise in 1:12 miniatures.
Mrs. Boothby’s beloved collection of ornaments come from various different sources. The Staffordshire cow (one of a pair) and the cow creamer that stand on the mantlepiece have been hand made and painted by Welsh miniature ceramist Rachel Williams who has her own studio, V&R Miniatures, in Powys. If you look closely, you will see that the Staffordshire cow actually has a smile on its face! Although you can’t notice it in the photo, the cow creamer has its own removable lid which is minute in size! The duck coming from the egg jug on the mantle, the rooster jug, the cottage ware butter dish, Peter Rabbit in the watering can tea pot and the cottage ware teapot to its right on the dresser were all made by French ceramicist and miniature artisan Valerie Casson. All the pieces are authentic replicas of real pieces made by different china companies. For example, the cottage ware teapot has been decorated authentically and matches in perfect detail its life-size Price Washington ‘Ye Olde Cottage Teapot’ counterparts. The top part of the thatched roof and central chimney form the lid, just like the real thing. Valerie Casson is renown for her meticulously crafted and painted miniature ceramics. The Queen Victoria teapot on the mantlepiece and the teapot on the dresser to the left of the Peter Rabbit teapot come from Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom. All the other plates on the dresser came from various online miniature stockists through E-Bay, as do the teapot, plate and cups on Mrs. Boothby’s kitchen table.
Mrs. Boothby’s picture gallery in the corner of the room come from Kathleen Knight’s Doll House Shop in the United Kingdom.
Mrs. Boothby’s beaded handbag on the table is also a 1:12 artisan miniature. Hand crocheted, it is interwoven with antique blue glass beads that are two millimetres in diameter. The beads of the handle are three millimetres in length. It came from Karen Ladybug Miniatures in the United Kingdom.
Spilling from her bag are her Player’s Navy Cut cigarette tin and Swan Vesta matches, which are 1:12 miniatures hand made by Jonesy’s Miniatures in England. The black ashtray is also an artisan piece, the bae of which is filled with “ash”. The tray as well as having grey ash in it, also has a 1:12 cigarette which rests on its lip (it is affixed there). Made by Nottingham based tobacconist manufacturer John Player and Sons, Player’s Medium Navy Cut was the most popular by far of the three Navy Cut brands (there was also Mild and Gold Leaf, mild being today’s rich flavour). Two thirds of all the cigarettes sold in Britain were Player’s and two thirds of these were branded as Player’s Medium Navy Cut. In January 1937, Player’s sold nearly 3.5 million cigarettes (which included 1.34 million in London). Production continued to grow until at its peak in the late 1950s, Player’s was employing 11,000 workers (compared to 5,000 in 1926) and producing 15 brands of pipe tobacco and 11 brands of cigarettes. Nowadays the brands “Player” and “John Player Special” are owned and commercialised by Imperial Brands (formerly the Imperial Tobacco Company). Swan Vestas is a brand name for a popular brand of ‘strike-anywhere’ matches. Shorter than normal pocket matches they are particularly popular with smokers and have long used the tagline ‘the smoker’s match’ although this has been replaced by the prefix ‘the original’ on the current packaging. Swan Vestas matches are manufactured under the House of Swan brand, which is also responsible for making other smoking accessories such as cigarette papers, flints and filter tips. The matches are manufactured by Swedish Match in Sweden using local, sustainably grown aspen. The Swan brand began in 1883 when the Collard & Kendall match company in Bootle on Merseyside near Liverpool introduced ‘Swan wax matches’. These were superseded by later versions including ‘Swan White Pine Vestas’ from the Diamond Match Company. These were formed of a wooden splint soaked in wax. They were finally christened ‘Swan Vestas’ in 1906 when Diamond merged with Bryant and May and the company enthusiastically promoted the Swan brand. By the 1930s ‘Swan Vestas’ had become ‘Britain’s best-selling match’.
The meagre foodstuffs on Mrs. Boothby’s shelf represent items not unusually found in poorer households across Britain. Before the Second World War, the British populace consumed far more sugar than we do today, partially for the poor because it was cheap and helped give people energy when their diets were lacking good nutritious foods. Therefore finding a tin of treacle, some preserved fruit or jam, and no fresh fruits or vegetables was not an unusual sight in a lower class home. All the tined foodstuffs, with the exception of the tin of S.P.C. peaches, are 1:12 size artisan miniatures made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire, with great attention to detail paid to their labels and the shapes of their jars and cans. The S.P.C. tin of peaches comes from Shepherd’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom. S.P.C. is an Australian brand that still exists to this day. In 1917 a group of fruit growers in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley decided to form a cooperative which they named the Shepperton Fruit Preserving Company. The company began operations in February 1918, canning pears, peaches and nectarines under the brand name of S.P.C. On the 31st of January 1918 the manager of the Shepparton Fruit Preserving Company announced that canning would begin on the following Tuesday and that the operation would require one hundred and fifty girls or women and thirty men. In the wake of the Great War, it was hoped that “the launch of this new industry must revive drooping energies” and improve the economic circumstances of the region. The company began to pay annual bonuses to grower-shareholders by 1929, and the plant was updated and expanded. The success of S.P.C. was inextricably linked with the progress of the town and the wider Goulburn Valley region. In 1936 the company packed twelve million cans and was the largest fruit cannery in the British empire. Through the Second World War the company boomed. The product range was expanded to include additional fruits, jam, baked beans and tinned spaghetti and production reached more than forty-three million cans a year in the 1970s. From financial difficulties caused by the 1980s recession, SPC returned once more to profitability, merging with Ardmona and buying rival company Henry Jones IXL. S.P.C. was acquired by Coca Cola Amatil in 2005 and in 2019 sold to a private equity group known as Shepparton Partners Collective.
The rather worn and beaten looking enamelled bread bin and colander in the typical domestic Art Deco design and kitchen colours of the 1920s, cream and green, which have been aged on purpose, are artisan pieces I acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop in the United Kingdom.
The various bowls, cannisters and dishes, the kettle and the Brown Betty teapot I have acquired from various online miniatures stockists throughout the United Kingdom, America and Australia. A Brown Betty is a type of teapot, round and with a manganese brown glaze known as Rockingham glaze. In the Victorian era, when tea was at its peak of popularity, tea brewed in the Brown Betty was considered excellent. This was attributed to the design of the pot which allowed the tea leaves more freedom to swirl around as the water was poured into the pot, releasing more flavour with less bitterness.
The black Victorian era stove and the ladderback chair on the left of the table and the small table directly behind it are all miniature pieces I have had since I was a child. The ladderback chair on the right came from a deceased estate of a miniatures collector in Sydney. The Welsh dresser came from Babette’s Miniatures, who have been making miniature dolls’ furnishings since the late Eighteenth Century. The dresser has plate grooves in it to hold plates in place, just like a real dresser would.
The grey marbleised fireplace behind the stove and the trough sink in the corner of the kitchen come from Kathleen Knight’s Doll House Miniatures in the United Kingdom.
The green wallpaper is an authentic replica of real Art Nouveau wallpaper from the first decade of the Twentieth Century which I have printed onto paper. The floorboards are a print of a photo taken of some floorboards that I scaled to 1:12 size to try and maintain a realistic look.
Taken on Route 66 somewhere East of Marshfield, Missouri.
When you are on a trip and have to keep going, it is difficult to get a perfect shot with great light and sky. Just take the best you can get and then move on.
This is as close as I can get (and cropped too) on the spider wasp Pompilidae. Corner of the eye at 18x on sensor, and cropped to about 1/3rd of the frame. So this is maybe 0.4mm of eye. I wanted to get as close as I could to look at the glassy quality of the eye more closely. It looks opaque even under the microscope, but the flash bounces deeper and gives the eyelets some translucence. Mitutoyo 20x (at 18x) on Nikon 180mm ED.
An amazing and emotional solo backpacking photography trip - please watch the Vlog here :
Losing someone close can take its toll…. Before my Mum passed she wrote me a letter and I said to her and myself I wanted to keep it for a time when I was as close to the heavens as I could get and this was the appropriate spot and weather for this…
2018 – what a summer!! With tent having been finally taken out of storage after the winter (I had planned a few winter camps but time seemed to beat me) I had taken full advantage of the superb weather that Western Europe had been experiencing. After a fine few days out in Applecross with Thomas Heaton, I was keen to get out ASAP and had my heart set on the summit of Stob Coire nan Lochan in Glencoe.
Arriving to the pipes in the Coe, I was soon heading up the familiar path, passing the day adventures on their way down. I often get asked about the weight in my pack and although I don’t weigh it, the only time I did, the weight of the camera and filming equipment actually equaled the weight of all the camping gear combined! Although not a light weight traveler (impossible to do with all the equipment !) I do try and carry as little water as possible due to the weight it adds. A Sawyer filter accompanies me and today it came in handy as I reached the corrie and filled up for the night ahead. If I thought the trek up to this point was tough going, I was about to really feel the weight as I carried on to the corrie rim and make my way round the famous cliffs. There was no rush so I slowly trekked on upwards and took frequent stops. Its amazing how the troubles of normal life leave you in these conditions, although I had one very important reason for coming up here which is explained at the end of the video and made this trip an extremely emotional one for me (see video and first paragraph)….
My main concern on the ascent was related to finding a suitable pitch on the summit of SCNL. I have been up here loads, but the majority of these visits have been when a deep layer of snow has settled! I didn’t want a repeat of my Torridon trip a few years previously when I spent about 90 minutes searching for a flat piece of ground without tent shredding rocks!!! My fears were growing as the entire journey round the corrie to the summit comprised of said sharp rocks!!
However as I reached the summit I spied a flat area of grass about 5 meters from the summit which turned out to be perfect for the tent (a one man tent that is!!!).
I set about setting up for the night and was done by sevenish. A few hours to play with, so I decided to head to Bidean. A lovely (pack less) trip saw me stood atop of Argyll and Bute all by myself , a wonderful moment (better was to come though).
A little more than an hour after setting off from SCNL , I returned and set about replenishing the lost calories, the light was absolutely magical and I had a glorious vista to enjoy whilst scoffing my evening dinner.
He next few hours were some of the best (an emotional) I have enjoyed on the mountain and I hope the video , and photos , does it justice. It was the perfect way and place to read my letter and say goodbye in my own way.
A few tears shed and night was soon gathering seed around me. I got my head down and woke a few hours later at 3.30am.
The dawn light lit the sky and heart filled the skies above me (perhaps a sign). A few more photos taken, but I spent more time just enjoying my surroundings and counting my lucky stars that I was privileged enough to be in this spot in these conditions.
The adventure wasn’t over yet. I decided to head back down the other side of the corrie and a few tricky steps later (well tricky with a huge ruck sack on!!) I was back in the corrie and beating a retreat to the car. Early morning whilst most of the world slept and I had enjoyed yet another fabulous adventure and met deer, bunting and a host a wildlife the majority of the population may never see.
How lucky are we who stay so close to these sacred mountains……
i'm so in love with the new px680, color protection by the impossible project.
it's worth to get and try out!
just can't wait for the 'roid week of this year :)
the love/hate thing with diana continues for me. having grown tired of the horizontal scratches, diana's taken up vertical ones. sigh. this image was taken minutes before (or maybe after) this one . granted, my positioning/perspective was different and this roll was developed in microphen for 9 minutes (vs. 12 1/2 for the holga roll), but still. "wtf diana?" i just don't get (and can't manage to solve) the problems with the scratches.
I chose this one for a few reasons – one to show how twelve-sided snowflakes can form with off-center alignment and also how “sticky” snowflakes can get – and they’ll break apart!
Twelve-sided snowflakes form when two crystals collide and stick together at a roughly 30-degree rotation of corners. They don’t need to be perfectly aligned in their centers however, as you can see here. As the branches grow outward, they rediscover their balance with an outward structure that feels quite circular. Simple physics at play: the outward growth is roughly rounded because there is equal amounts of water vapour allowing for the growth. This snowflake likely tumbled and twirled through the air seemingly at random but covering every area equally in the process.
The bottom left has a story to tell. Often times when I encounter a snowflake that I’d like to photograph, I clean debris or clutter from other crystals off of the surface. Sometimes, these extra pieces can be stubborn. In this case, it was because the extra crystal had permanently fused to the main crystal and would not be separated without damage to each snowflake. One slight nudge with my fine paint brush results in a violent shattering of these two crystals, creating a sheer cut on the main twelve-branched snowflake and leaving behind pieces of the other one. There are tiny dots and colour from thin film interference that show me the two crystals had indeed been glued together – something I missed on initial observations and test photos.
That broken limb is now a part of this snowflakes story, a story that now would depict this snowflake as water soaking into the ground or gas in the air, never to make the same combination again. A cycle that has happened many millions of times. It’s fun to think that it’s the same water that Earth has always had, constantly being recycled. Because of the huge number of water molecules in a snowflake (some estimates put the average at 4 quadrillion), it’s incredibly likely that if Dinosaurs could cry, there’s a small portion of a dinosaur tear in every snowflake. There is a near-infinite history in a single snowflake, each like a tiny universe all to themselves, reborn each time they start again in a cloud overhead.
Shot with the Lumix GH5S which performed amazingly well for this subject, even with its lower resolution sensor the detail able to be resolved at high magnification is quite impressive (using the Canon MP-E 65mm 1x-5x macro lens). I’ve got a Lumix S1R here in studio for high-resolution tests, and while it might be too late for additional snowflake images I’m sure I’ll find some use cases on the other end of the photographic spectrum.
Four more snowflakes to go after this one before the end of this year’s series. Thanks to everyone that has been following along! If you haven’t had enough, there’s always further reading in Sky Crystals: skycrystals.ca/product/sky-crystals-unraveling-the-myster... or further learning from me in photographic workshops: www.donkom.ca/workshops/ - would love to see you in my studio, or on an Icelandic adventure! :)
This image has a Roseate Spoonbill getting a drink with a Black-bellied Whistling Duck or two. Hanging out way in a corner. The bird is a real attention getter and a treat to see. I took so many images down there the whole time I was there. Like every few day I'd run out for a few hours. I'm still posting images from that time that I'm finally getting to. Really doesn't mater current of not. I certainly don't a lot of followers lol. I guess you could say I do this for myself. My collection of images
Wakodahatchee Wetlands
just around the corner where i reside.
tristesse at it's best. as good as it gets. and the letters i threw in there weren't as effective as i hoped...
This gentleman stands on the mall many days, offering free hugs "in these days of so much division". He gets and gives a lot of hugs.
Are you certain there are no prints? // Well, we dusted everything / but didn't find any. // That's amazing, / the guy left his glove here / that is as certain / as can get / and you guys didn't find no prints? // What dust did you use?
Leather factory Oisterwijk, Photo-session initiated by Harry, June 18, 2014
The Luxury of being yourself
We have selected pictures on our website, but can always add more depending on the requests we do get and the current trend in the world of luxury fine art:
We do once in a while have discounted luxury fine art, please do keep checking:
Fine Art Photography Prints & Luxury Wall Art:
We do come up with merchandises over the years, but at the moment we have sold out and will bring them back depending on the demands of our past customers and those we do take on daily across the globe.
Follow us on Instagram!
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We tend to celebrate light in our pictures. Understanding how light interacts with the camera is paramount to the work we do. The temperature, intensity and source of light can wield different photography effect on the same subject or scene; add ISO, aperture and speed, the camera, the lens type, focal length and filters…the combination is varied ad multi-layered and if you know how to use them all, you will come to appreciate that all lights are useful, even those surrounded by a lot of darkness.
We are guided by three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, our longing to capture in print, that which is beautiful, the constant search for the one picture, and constant barrage of new equipment and style of photography. These passions, like great winds, have blown us across the globe in search of the one and we do understand the one we do look for might be this picture right here for someone else out there.
“A concise poem about our work as stated elow
A place without being
a thought without thinking
creatively, two dimensions
suspended animation
possibly a perfect imitation
of what was then to see.
A frozen memory in synthetic colour
or black and white instead,
fantasy dreams in magazines
become imbedded inside my head.
Artistic views
surrealistic hues,
a photographer’s instinctive eye:
for he does as he pleases
up to that point he releases,
then develops a visual high.
- M R Abrahams
Some of the gear we use at William Stone Fine Art are listed here:
Some of our latest work & more!
Embedded galleries within a gallery on various aspects of Photography:
There are other aspects closely related to photography that we do embark on:
All prints though us is put through a rigorous set of quality control standards long before we ever ship it to your front door. We only create gallery-quality images, and you'll receive your print in perfect condition with a lifetime guarantee.
All images on Flickr have been specifically published in a lower grade quality to amber our copyright being infringed. We have 4096x pixel full sized quality on all our photos and any of them could be ordered in high grade museum quality grade and a discount applied if the voucher WS-100 is used. Please contact us:
We do plan future trips and do catalogue our past ones, if you believe there is a beautiful place we have missed, and we are sure there must be many, please do let us know and we will investigate.
In our galleries you will find some amazing fine art photography for sale as limited edition and open edition, gallery quality prints. Only the finest materials and archival methods are used to produce these stunning photographic works of art.
We want to thank you for your interest in our work and thanks for visiting our work on Flickr, we do appreciate you and the contributions you make in furthering our interest in photography and on social media in general, we are mostly out in the field or at an event making people feel luxurious about themselves.
WS-269-281773145-151361396-6762243-2692021152856
Dandelion.
This is part of a set of variants of an image I took not long ago while walking in the local lanes with the little camera.
I published the first version a couple of days ago as Inner Secrets as a “proper” monochrome. There are two more proper versions in the set today, and the rest are manglings.
I hope you enjoy some of them, anyway. They are always fun for me to do because I’m never sure where I’ll get and ideas come to me along the way. Not that all the ideas are worth much!
This is the monochrome version mirrored in Affinity using the Distort>Mirror filter with fourfold symmetry.
For my 100x Monochrome & Toned project :)
As ever for the Sliders Sunday sets I’ll publish a link to the in-camera original in the first comment so you can see how far we came.
Thanks for taking the time out of your day to look at my images. I appreciate it, and hope you enjoy them. Happy 100x :)
[Handheld in daylight.
Developed in Photolab 3 originally for the monochrome, taking out the greens in the background, and retrieving detail in the highlights.
Processed in Affinity Photo using various approaches described in the text.]
Beginning to repeat myself here, but thought I would try the spinning top with a different colour scheme.
I think this is about as perfect an entry into the water as I'm likely to get and really like the almost glass like appearance, so here it is :)
Lighting was provided by a pair of Neewer SF-01 mini slave flashes either side, shot through white paper difussers and fired by radio triggers. Behind and below the tank, a Yongnuo YN460 set to 1/8th power to light a blue fun foam background and fired with it's optical trigger.
The Luxury of being yourself
We have selected pictures on our website, but can always add more depending on the requests we do get and the current trend in the world of luxury fine art:
We do once in a while have discounted luxury fine art, please do keep checking:
Fine Art Photography Prints & Luxury Wall Art:
We do come up with merchandises over the years, but at the moment we have sold out and will bring them back depending on the demands of our past customers and those we do take on daily across the globe.
Follow us on Instagram!
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/william.stone.989/
500px:
500px.com/p/wsimages?view=photos
Twitter:
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/william-stone-6bab1a213/
Pinterest:
www.pinterest.co.uk/wsimages_com/
Smugmug:
Instagram:
We tend to celebrate light in our pictures. Understanding how light interacts with the camera is paramount to the work we do. The temperature, intensity and source of light can wield different photography effect on the same subject or scene; add ISO, aperture and speed, the camera, the lens type, focal length and filters…the combination is varied ad multi-layered and if you know how to use them all, you will come to appreciate that all lights are useful, even those surrounded by a lot of darkness.
We are guided by three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, our longing to capture in print, that which is beautiful, the constant search for the one picture, and constant barrage of new equipment and style of photography. These passions, like great winds, have blown us across the globe in search of the one and we do understand the one we do look for might be this picture right here for someone else out there.
“A concise poem about our work as stated elow
A place without being
a thought without thinking
creatively, two dimensions
suspended animation
possibly a perfect imitation
of what was then to see.
A frozen memory in synthetic colour
or black and white instead,
fantasy dreams in magazines
become imbedded inside my head.
Artistic views
surrealistic hues,
a photographer’s instinctive eye:
for he does as he pleases
up to that point he releases,
then develops a visual high.
- M R Abrahams
Some of the gear we use at William Stone Fine Art are listed here:
Some of our latest work & more!
Embedded galleries within a gallery on various aspects of Photography:
There are other aspects closely related to photography that we do embark on:
All prints though us is put through a rigorous set of quality control standards long before we ever ship it to your front door. We only create gallery-quality images, and you'll receive your print in perfect condition with a lifetime guarantee.
All images on Flickr have been specifically published in a lower grade quality to amber our copyright being infringed. We have 4096x pixel full sized quality on all our photos and any of them could be ordered in high grade museum quality grade and a discount applied if the voucher WS-100 is used. Please contact us:
We do plan future trips and do catalogue our past ones, if you believe there is a beautiful place we have missed, and we are sure there must be many, please do let us know and we will investigate.
In our galleries you will find some amazing fine art photography for sale as limited edition and open edition, gallery quality prints. Only the finest materials and archival methods are used to produce these stunning photographic works of art.
We want to thank you for your interest in our work and thanks for visiting our work on Flickr, we do appreciate you and the contributions you make in furthering our interest in photography and on social media in general, we are mostly out in the field or at an event making people feel luxurious about themselves.
WS-232-28490181-212487611-4498803-2082021212818
Dandelions make wishes come true. You just have to think of something you' love to get and to blow the spores in the same moment. But that's only hope! If you really want your dreams to come true it's often hard work and that's why they're lost sometimes just like the spores of dandelions...
Today I wanted to take some nature, landscape, animal photos, but then it started to rain... So I edited lots of old photos and now I have hundreds of them I want to upload :D
And: You are amazing!!! I had more than 1,000 views in less than a week and so much comments. I can just say: Thank you sooo much <33 Don't forget my print giveaway.